Posted on Friday, April 21, 2017
While Blockchain has established a reputation in the FinTech sector, there are other potential applications that threaten to disrupt many other industries. SolarCoin is just one such project that looks set to upset the most unlikely of sectors – utilities and energy.
Paying for production
The traditional utilities model is set up on a business to consumer basis – customers pay per unit for the energy they use from the grid. But as more consumers begin generating their own energy from renewables and feeding that back into the grid, utilities firms need to find a way to pay them for their contribution.
The SolarCoin Foundation has developed their own solution – a cryptocurrency called SolarCoin. Registered customers earn SolarCoins according to the number of units that they feed back into the grid. Like all cryptocurrencies, SolarCoins are stored in virtual wallets until used to pay for goods and services, or converted to a physical currency.
Blockchain-backed technology for the utilities industry
To ensure the integrity of the SolarCoin currency, the system is underpinned by Blockchain technology. Every utility firm and user signed up to the SolarCoin scheme becomes a node, holding a copy of the encrypted database to prevent loss or corruption.
This “chain of custody” is hugely valuable to utility firms – but it also presents a future problem. Every transaction creates a footprint that needs to be stored, adding to the volume of data that must be held.
Exponential data growth is a problem in every industry – and Blockchain systems are only set to add to the problem. Which is why CTOs need to investigate alternative storage options moving forward. Especially as the Blockchain database has doubled in size in just 12 months.
Post warranty hardware redeployment
Redeploying post warranty hardware offers a cost-effective solution. Unused arrays can be used to hold archived Blockchain transaction data – or for any other archiving activity. The more existing assets you can redeploy, the more money you free up for reinvestment in other projects.
Next steps
For any utility firm (or any other sector) considering Blockchain technologies, post-warranty hardware offers a solution to the problem of exponential data growth. To learn more, please give us a call.
– See more at: https://www.cds.net/blog/2017/04/solarcoin-blockchain-data-storage/#sthash.9uI5vgP1.dpuf